Jennifer Shore

Co-governing common goods : interaction patterns of private and public actors

Abstract This article addresses co-governance which can be defined as a dynamic interaction between public and private actors to secure the provision of common goods. Which types of relationship between public and private actors exist? Do the forms of co-governance change over time? When is the relationship between public and private actors cooperative, when is it competitive, and when do we witness conflictual relationships? These research questions lie at the heart of this introductory article, which seeks to shed further light on the origins and impacts of the various co-governance patterns. By reviewing the body of research on this topic, we show that different relationships between public and private actors exist, and that the forms of co-governance can also change over time. While the dominant form of co-governance is cooperation, one can also observe instances of competition or even conflict between public and private actors. Most importantly, we find that both public and private actors are ready to reclaim competences in areas where they perceive the other actor to have gained too much influence. As we discuss in this article, the degree of cooperation and competition mostly depends on the existing regulatory arrangements, the congruence of goals of the different actor groups, and the institutionalization of industrial relations. These insights help us to better understand the role co-governance can play in addressing complex public problems.

Not so risky business? How social policies shape the perceived feasibility of self-employment

This article addresses ongoing debates about whether the welfare state hinders or fosters self-employment. Starting a business can be an inherently risky undertaking and is thus not a feasible option for all people. Policies that have the potential to shoulder some of this risk can be particularly important for the decision to enter into self-employment. Taking individual differences in terms of risk tolerance into account, we focus on unemployment protection for the self-employed – a type of risk which is particularly difficult to privately insure oneself against – in order to investigate the ways in which policy can shape people’s perceptions of self-employment. We combine individual-level data from a 2009 Flash Eurobarometer survey with country-level data on unemployment policies in Europe in a multilevel design, finding that the presence of unemployment protection for the self-employed positively influences individual perceptions of the feasibility of self-employment. Risk-tolerant individuals, moreover, are found to be even more likely to assess self-employment as a feasible option in countries that offer unemployment protection to the self-employed.

Assessing youth labour market services: Young people’s perceptions and evaluations of service delivery in Germany

While youth unemployment is a widely studied topic, many accounts fail to take into consideration young adults’ experiences with and perceptions of the public services they make use of. Young people’s perceptions of the services they use are closely linked to a variety of behaviours such as noncompliance, early withdrawal or non-take-up, all of which can hinder the (re-)entry to the labour market. How young people evaluate their interactions with employment services can even have impacts on societal and political attitudes; as for many young people, these experiences represent their first interactions with the state. In this study, we draw on unique survey data to offer insights into young adults’ evaluations and experiences with public employment services in Germany and discuss them in light of the structure and organizational capacity of public employment services to deliver the programmes and services that young adults need. By placing the analytical focus on young people’s evaluations, we argue that although Germany is often highlighted as a highly successful case in terms of youth labour market outcomes; there is nevertheless ample room for improvement in terms of how young people assess the offerings and personal experiences with public employment services.

Consequences of Unequal Citizenship

What are the implications of unequal democratic political input for the representativeness and health of democratic states? This is the question guiding this chapter, which provides a review and discussion of the main findings of the empirical analyses of how social policies can shape both the levels and distributions of political participation and democratic support. The study’s limitations and the challenges for future research are discussed with a view to implications that the findings have for the legitimacy of modern democratic societies.

The Impact of Social Policy on Democratic Citizenship

Using multilevel regression models with cross-level interactions between income and social expenditures, the hypotheses on how the welfare state can shape democratic citizenship is empirically tested. Voting, political interest, political trust, and satisfaction with democracy are all found to be higher in countries where a policy priority on working-age adults and families exists. More nuanced patterns are, however, found with regard to the social gradient in democratic citizenship: while larger welfare states appear to promote greater political equality across some aspects of democratic citizenship, the gap between the richest and poorest citizens remains even in generous welfare states with regard to political trust.

Empirical Approaches to the Study of Democratic Citizens and Welfare States

This chapter provides a discussion of the debates and challenges involved with measuring the welfare state as well as a brief foray into multilevel modeling techniques. These essential research design aspects lay the groundwork for the quantitative empirical analyses to follow and guide the reader through issues and topics related to concept-measurement consistency and data and measurement of welfare states. In a second step, the substantive and logical reasoning behind multilevel or hierarchical regression models is discussed with regard to the cross-national study of political attitudes and behaviors.

Democracies and Their Citizens

This chapter examines the implications of economic inequality for the quality of democracy and discusses the origins and various forms of democratic citizenship. How socioeconomic inequality can constrain an equal exercise of politics rights is the second focus of the chapter. Citizens with fewer resources, for example, in terms of income, education, or social networks, are also those who are the least likely to be engaged with politics. Those who lack socioeconomic, cultural, and cognitive capital are, therefore, at a much greater risk of experiencing disadvantages across various spheres of citizenship. The trap of poverty is thus not constrained to economic disadvantage but renders other forms of citizenship difficult to attain as well.

Why Context Matters: The Role of Public Policy

The welfare state influences policies and politics. While many have studied welfare states in terms of their determinants or policy outcomes, a rapidly growing subfield of comparative politics is focusing increasingly on the ways in which welfare state institutions affect individual attitudes and behaviors. This chapter examines how the welfare state shapes attitudes and behaviors. Starting with new institutionalist perspectives and touching on theoretical accounts of the role of the state, the interconnectedness of rights is discussed with regard to the ways in which the welfare state can hinder or encourage political engagement. Drawing on insights from the policy feedback approach, the chapter concludes with a more targeted account of how the welfare state can shape democratic citizenship.